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Hitmen from Colombia have tried to kill President Maduro of Venezuela, Caracas has claimed, in what critics say is a ploy to justify granting the President sweeping new powers.

Miguel Rodriguez, the Venezuelan Interior Minister, said that the two would-be assassins had been acting on the orders of Álvaro Uribe, the former president of Colombia.

Mr Maduro, who was hand-picked by a dying Hugo Chávez to succeed him, said that far-right Venezuelan opposition figures in Miami lay behind the plot. He demanded that President Obama state whether he knew of the alleged plot. “Is President Obama so weak that decisions